


A Message for Dr. Plane Crash and Crew

by ricecrispbees



Category: Villainous (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Siblings, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, M/M, Other, POV First Person, this is more or less experimental but if ppl like it then i can keep it going, which! i would like to add! is impossibly difficult to write!, writing fanfic w ocs isnt cringey anymore right.....
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-07 02:20:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17951816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ricecrispbees/pseuds/ricecrispbees
Summary: Dr. Flug Slys has had a pretty shitty past. From abusive siblings who blame him for their mother leaving to high school bullies enforcing how smart is too smart, there is plenty that the scientist has to run from. Living as the right-hand man of the most powerful supervillain ever has granted Flug safety from the outside world that he's desperately needed... or at least, that's what it was supposed to do.The bag wasn't enough to hide his identity, it seems, and now there's a letter mailed to him with a name the scientist hasn't heard in years on it. Somebody knows who he really is. That same somebody has it in for Black Hat and the gang. They have no choice but to flee their manor for safety reasons, and now Flug's beginning to realize no choice but to face his past demons in both a literal and figurative sense. Will he succeed? Probably not, but don't tell him that.





	1. The Bag Comes Off

**Author's Note:**

> this is supposed to be just a warm up piece honestly :,D am unsure of whether or not to continue so please tell me if you like it ...I've three other drafts in the works right now, two for don't starve and one for villainous. expect these from me someday soon :v  
> 

   

My name is Dr. Flug Slys. It’s not my real name, of course; no parent would be stupid enough to name their kid ‘plane crash’. It’s just an inside joke that stuck after a couple years. At 25 years old, I have five PhDs and speak nine languages fluently. I also work as the head scientist for the biggest superpower in the hero/villain world: Black Hat Organization. Frankly, I’m pretty proud of my accomplishments in life; perhaps too proud, as my boss shamelessly lets me know every time I end up going on a self-absorbed tangent. In my defense though, I’ve had a lot of shit thrown at me and feel that maybe,  _ maybe _ the little bit of self-worth I still have in me is deserved.

But hey, what do I know, right?

If I had to describe myself in one word, it would be tired.

Tired, tired, tired.

At least the word is simple enough to stomach. If the widely-accepted English equivalent of ‘cansado’ were to be something long like ‘prostrated’ or ‘debilitated’, I’d fall asleep just thinking about it. Not that anyone knows how tired I am most of the time though; Black Hat would kick my ass if he caught me complaining about my job aloud to anyone. I worked like hell to get to where I am today, so if something happened and I lost my job, I think I’d have a total mental breakdown. Living away from my past troubles under the wing of the strongest villain in the known universe is, as it stands now, the way I’d like to continue living out the rest of my time on this hell planet.

Sure, it doesn’t look like the best way to live by any means. I know how I come across on those orientation tapes and on TV, but I promise you there’s no place I’d rather be than here. Does work leave me tired and battered and beaten and ready to drop dead nearly every day, sure. Does Demencia’s antics make me want to rip my hair out, and does taking care of 5.0.5. get a little more emotionally taxing by the day,  _ absolutely _ . But, Black Hat basically has my safety, my  _ life _ guaranteed for as long as I’m working for him, and knowing that is enough to keep me going for now.

 

On this particular morning, I felt a bit more tired than usual. Black Hat Organization was in the news again recently and the boss was on the verge of tearing me a new asshole for it, as if the ordeal was my fault to begin with! I’d done a bit of digging and as it turned out, there had been an increase in customer complaints about the fact that one of the products we recently put out “didn’t work”. Utter horseshit if I’ve ever heard it. Everything I create works. That’s a guarantee. If there was an issue in the product, customers were supposed to bitch about the underlings at the  sweatshops factories we produced everything in about it, not blame the head scientist who didn’t do a damn thing wrong! The night before, I got called into Black Hat’s office for a little ‘chat’ about it. That alone was bad, but you should have seen the look on the boss’ face when I walked in. Oh, if looks could kill.

“Flug,” He asked me, voice positively dripping in venom yet eerily calm, “Explain this.” He said, sliding me the most recent edition of the local newspaper. I felt myself break into a cold sweat under my paper bag. The front page was in bold, with “BLACK HAT ORG: TOO BAD FOR ITS OWN GOOD?” written at the top. Underneath was a very unflattering image somebody must have taken of us while we were out doing some shopping together, which...come to think of it, we hadn’t done in ages. I almost had the mind to say that the photographer had been saving that picture for a while. I was staring off into the distance, Black Hat looked as though he was mid-blink, 5.0.5. was rooting through one of the shelves for something, and Demencia...well. There’s no polite way to describe the fact that she was itching a rather unsavory area right as the shutter went off. I cringed.

“ _ J-jefecito chulo _ ,” I stammered, intimidated by Black Hat’s anger and uselessly hoping that the kiss-up pet name would cool things off a bit, “I’m truly sorry about this, I didn’t realize this photo of us existed. If you’d like, I can—“

Black Hat cut me off almost immediately. “Fix this  _ immediately _ ? For the sake of this company, I hope so.”

“Yes, of course I can, but how, sir?” Did he want me to build some sort of memory-erasing machine and sic it on the whole town? That was doable; I already had about three different versions of a machine like that we could use right now. All he had to do was ask and Demencia and I would be on it, but apparently he had a different solution in mind.

“Your inventions, as much as I hate to admit this, are the backbone of this company.” My boss continued, knitting his fingers together atop his expensive wooden desk, “If anything goes wrong with them, it reflects badly on all of us. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this, yes?”

I felt cold sweat running down my neck. “Y-yes sir.” I replied, unable to control my stammering. I did have a pretty good idea of where he was going to go with this; if I fuck up, it makes everyone look bad, and that makes the company look bad, and we can’t have this happening because blahblahblah insert a bunch of boring-ass technical business speak here. I got the point by then and was waiting for a window to go back to work on whatever it was he wanted.

“Good.” Black Hat’s lips if one could even call them that turned up into one of his trademark sickly, intimidating smiles, revealing all of his razor-sharp pointed teeth. I felt myself begin to shake harder, my brain already calculating what would happen if I didn’t find a way to bar the media from damaging our reputation even more. “Apparently, our customers have complaints about an anti-hero acid gun you created recently. I’m told the acid corrodes the gun itself before they can even use it. I want you to re-do the gun from scratch by Thursday, and so help me if even  _ one _ flaw is found in the design, you’ll be missing your balls before you know what hit you. Am I clear?”

Black Hat glared at me and I understood he was being completely serious. As someone who was a fan of retaining his testicles, I knew I had no other choice but to comply.

“Of course, sir. I’ll get to work right away!” I nodded, relieved that he’d at least given me a reasonable deadline to meet for once. Today was Tuesday. If I started on the new product as soon as I got back, all I had to do was go over the blueprints again and rebuild my invention from there. That would take me maybe a day at the most if I pulled another all-nighter and worked without taking any breaks. That left me a full 24 hours to make any needed adjustments to the final product, and if I was lucky I would have some free time once I was finished. Perfect.

“Good.” My boss said, turning his back on me. “Now get out.”

  
  
  


I thought that would be the end of that, but as it turned out, I was wrong. I was in the lab not two hours later, hard at work on revising my invention. The room was filled with the satisfying smell of molten titanium and various corrosive acids bubbling and boiling away in their respective test tubes as I welded together the parts for a new, titanium-reinforced version of my original invention. 5.0.5. was napping in the corner, the flower on his head curled up on itself as he slept. Easily the cutest thing I would see all week, and occasionally my eyes drifted from the project to the bear before I came back to reality and started working again. For once, I felt pretty good about how things were going. Maybe, I thought naively, today would be peaceful and I’d be able to get this done without a single interruption.

Nope. 

Shortly after the thought skittered across my brain, a certain someone managed to kick in the door to the lab even though I double-padlocked it to keep her out.

“Flug-bug!”

5.0.5. let out a frightened “Baw!” and jumped up from his spot in the corner. I heaved a sigh and set down the blowtorch in my hand, flipping up the welding mask over my face.

“What do you want, Demencia?” I asked the girl in the doorway who was practically bouncing out of her shoes in excitement, and a quick once-over made me realize something was a bit different about today’s visit from her. I felt a knot of discomfort start to form in my gut. She stood with her hands behind her back like she was hiding something out of my view, and if she ever had something to give me be it news or a physical item, it was never something good. The smile that spread over her face next confirmed that it wouldn’t be pleasant this time either.

“Black Hat sent me to get you!” Demencia chirped. “I dunno for what, but oh,  _ boy _ does he look pissed!” She grinned ear-to-ear in a way that made my stomach drop into my feet. The boss was irate with me  _ again _ ? Why? I wracked my brain for every possible thing I could have done wrong but kept turning up blanks, and I didn’t realize how far into my own mind I’d gone until I registered the girl in front of me waving her hands in my eyes.

“Helloooo? Earth to Flug?” She called out. I blinked a few times and stumbled backwards when I saw just how uncomfortably close her face was to mine.

“Ack, don’t get so close!” I barked, “Besides, there’s hot metal on the table behind you!” I took off my welding mask and pointed out the still-hot mass of titanium behind Demencia. She turned and gave the mass a brief once-over before tentatively reaching out to touch it. For a second, I seriously contemplated letting her just do it and watch her burn herself, but unfortunately my conscience had other plans. I wrangled her away from the table like I was handling a wild animal, shouting, “Hey!  _ No _ , you’re gonna burn yourself!”

“Excuse you! Don’t talk to me like I’m a dog, dumbass!” She growled, kicking me in the shin. The impact was enough to make me let go immediately with a groan of pain and I doubled over, clutching my leg.

“Asshole!” I cursed and swung my fist at her in retaliation. She caught my hand and pinned my arm behind my back, twisting my shoulder muscles and making me see white. I screamed. 

“Ow, ow, okay! I get it Dem, let me go already!” I moaned, the pain in my arm already becoming too much for me to handle. With a chuckle, Demencia complied, hopping up onto a cleared lab bench and sitting atop it like a perched bird.

“Hah. Couldn’t handle a twist of the arm? What a pussy.” She jeered. I rolled my eyes and removed my welding gloves. “Black Hat looks like he’s ready to tear you a new one, so you’d better hurry up and see what he wants.”

“Shut up. If I come back and see you’ve destroyed the place, it’ll be  _ you _ getting a new asshole torn into them.” I threatened, pointing a finger her way to emphasize my point. She just stared blankly in response for a moment before scuttling up the wall and disappearing into an air vent. All I could do was sit and watch and pretend like I was used to her pulling shit like that by now.

Walking out from my lab and down to the boss’ office, I thought back to when Demencia first became a part of Black Hat Organization. I was nineteen at the time, hired recently by Black Hat and dying for the chance to finally work on all the inventions I’d thought up and kept in the abundance of notebooks scattered all about my lab. She’d somehow managed to bypass our security systems and stumbled in, wearing ragged clothing and no shoes. Demencia had looked as though she’d been in an awful fight and was beaten about the head so badly that her hair was matted with blood and dirt, dyeing it a sickening black color. Her face was beaten beyond recognition and I almost thought she was a walking corpse at first. Part of her ear had been chewed off, and some bite mark analysis showed that a person had done that to her. Horrific was certainly one word for it.

Black Hat initially suggested we  _ dispose _ of her, but I had other plans. You see, 5.0.5. was more or less a failed experiment. As much as I love having him around, the original plan was for him to be the ‘muscle’ of our group, and something went wrong along the way. When Demencia, named such because she barely remembered how to speak when I first interrogated her, came about I realized I finally had a chance to start that experiment over with a few...modifications. Several hours and lots of unethical science later, Black Hat Organization had a new recruit. The results weren’t perfect; her irises were of different sizes, I couldn’t reconstruct the chunk in her ear, and her nose was slightly crooked. All in all though, it wasn’t bad for my first time doing full-body plastic surgery if you could call it that. It definitely took her a while to get used to life here, but even if she’s a pain in my ass sometimes, her chaotic nature is a stark contrast to the first year or so of her being ‘active’ if you will. 

I arrived at the door to Black Hat’s office and already every muscle in my body was trembling sporadically.

“B-boss…?” I called, knocking ever so quietly on the expensive wood door. “I’m--”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence as the door flung itself open. Black Hat stood on the other side of the threshold, his face livid with anger. I blanched, stumbling backwards, and my boss grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.

“You have some explaining to do.” He snarled, voice low. I noticed 5.0.5. peeking at me from around the corner and felt a pang of sympathy for him. Poor baby was trembling in fear. Black Hat shot a glare down at him and pulled me into the room, slamming the door behind him.

“M-may I ask what exactly I did wrong, Black Hat, sir?” I asked, stammering and trembling so hard I felt that I would bite my tongue. Black Hat didn’t respond, simply motioning for me to follow him and sitting down at his desk again. I tensely perched myself on the edge of the chair in front of him, knees locked tightly together. On the desk was an envelope with a piece of paper resting on top, folded in half so I couldn’t see what was written on it, and my boss was silent for a long time.

“Flug.” Black Hat’s voice, when he finally did speak, was so callous and cold that I felt a lump forming in my throat already.

“Y-yes sir?”

“Who are you in contact with outside the organization?” My boss’ eye flickered up from the newspaper and bore into my very soul. Sweat ran down my bag like a waterfall. Truthfully, I didn’t have contact with anyone outside of Black Hat Organization, and it was going to stay that way. I did give seminars and lectures on how to be a better scientist and similar topics for other bad guys from time to time as a way to get more cash for the company, but my relationship with the villain community didn’t get any deeper than that. Making friends would be too much of a hassle, and besides, Black Hat wasn’t a fan of me socializing with other villains outside of work. 

As for my family, they were all pretty much dead to me and I hadn’t had contact with them since high school. I was going to keep them out of my life for the rest of my foreseeable future, so it wasn’t like I planned to send them a letter or something detailing each and every last bit of information regarding my work for Black Hat. Thus, I replied “Nobody, sir.” with the straightest face I could manage, knowing full well that I wasn’t lying. Black Hat, however, wasn’t having any of it.

“Bullshit!” He roared, unfolding the letter and turning it towards me. “If that were so, then explain this!”

I took one look at the contents of the page and my entire world came screeching to a halt.

“This is a message to Black Hat Organization from an anonymous band of persons, concerning the head scientist of your organization.” It read. “We admire your organization and what it stands for, but your scientist, Dr. Flug Slys, is a wretched man who has lied to you countless times. His real name is not what he has told you, nor is he the genius inventor he’s made himself out to be. He is a cowardly, stupid man with a past full of vileness and wrongdoing he has hidden from you like he hides his hideous face, and his legal name is not Flug Slys. It is Silas Finbar Aberly.

Silas is a wretched coward who has done nothing but wrong to us. This may seem to be a good thing for you, but he has no loyalties and we fear he may try to backstab you like he did us. Please ensure that rat is disposed of immediately and publicly announce his release when you do so. This way, we will know that that filth has been eradicated the way we’ve been waiting for for far too long. If you do not, we will personally ensure he will die, and you will die with him, but not before we personally humiliate you all for the public to see.

Thank you for your time. Comply for your own good.

-A.S.”

 

Attached was a photograph of me in high school, face on full display for anyone who wanted to look. My mouth hung open under the bag and my entire body went rigid. I hardly registered the fact that Black Hat was speaking until I looked up and saw his mouth was moving.

“...if that even  _ is _ your real name, you’ll tell me who this A.S. is, how they got my address, and what your relation to them is.” He leaned in, very slowly and with an expression of pure malice upon his face. I tried to speak, but no words would come out, and my body shook so hard I could have fallen out of the chair at any moment.

Silas Aberly. Goddamned Silas Finbar Aberly. I’d worked so hard to bury that name. I burnt all of my documents and forged new ones with ‘Flug Slys’ in its place, and I even hid my face from the public eye out of sheer paranoia, and yet  _ somehow _ someone still figured out who I really was. It was asinine, unthinkable, the worst possible thing to happen to me. My old self had been dug up from the ashes in which he was buried, and what Black Hat was going to do to him now was anyone’s guess.

“S-sir,” Finally, I was able to get some words out of my mouth, “I have no idea who sent this, and I mean that wholeheartedly.”

“Bull _ shit _ ! Obviously it had to be  _ someone _ you know!” Black Hat roared, slamming the paper on the table. “This photo of you is a school photo, right? I assume you don’t just hand these out to everyone you meet.”

“I don’t!” I sputtered, unsure of what else there was to say.

“Well, you’d better find a good excuse for what the fuck this is then!” My boss snapped. “Normally, I would assume this was just a prank. But whoever sent this is obviously someone you know, and damn it, Flug--” He stopped, and a sadistic grin spread across his face. “Oh, my bad. Damn it,  _ Silas _ , you will tell me who A.S. is or so help me, you will be dead. You’re lucky I’m even giving you the chance to explain yourself.”

I cringed. That name sounded more awful than usual coming from Black Hat’s mouth and he could definitely see that now.

“I don’t know who that is!” Panic overtook me and my voice began to crack. Tears were pooling in my eyes and my heart thumped erratically against my sternum. Maybe if I went into cardiac arrest and died now, I’d be spared of all shame and fear in my next life. “Boss, Black Hat sir, please, you’ve got to believe me, I’d never do anything to endanger this company! It means too much for to me to do that!”

I didn’t actually expect my saying that to do anything, but Black Hat actually stopped his angry tirade and looked me over for what may have been an hour. 

“Well if you don’t know now, you’d better start thinking.” He finally said after a while. “Whoever this is found a picture of you, plus my address. I’d wager they’re pretty dangerous. Not that they could be any worse than  _ me _ , of course, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be wary.” Black Hat’s eye looked me over once more. “Are you  _ sure _ you don’t know who it was? Not an old friend with a grudge, not family, no one like that?” He picked up the photograph and looked it over. “Honestly, this isn’t even what I’d imagine you to look like without that stupid bag...maybe it is just a prank after all.”

I could almost feel gears inside my head turn as I mulled over Black Hat’s words.

Family…

_ Family _ .

_ Of course.  _

My family, but more specifically my older siblings, were abusive shitheads to me. I was the youngest of four...no, five children, and I was also the only boy. To make matters worse, I stuck out from them like a sore thumb in terms of appearance. That paired with a few other things about me as a person made me the subject of ridicule from my sisters from the day I was born until the day I finally fucked off for good, giving them nothing in return for their years of being with me but the middle finger and some very harsh words. I thought that by leaving them behind, they’d leave me be and that would be the end of that, but I guess my sisters just couldn’t hold off from trying to ruin my life one final time. It made even more sense when I remembered how the letter was signed; “A.S.”. Aberly Sisters. Of course it had to be them.

It felt like a penny dropped inside my brain and everything came together. 

“Boss, it wasn’t a prank.” I blurted and Black Hat glanced back at me with a skeptical expression. The more I thought about it, the more pieces began to fall into place, and the fear in my body began to melt away, a scalding hot anger slowly but surely taking its place. Oh, why hadn’t it crossed my mind sooner? My sisters were the ones behind this; those assholes were going to have hell to pay for threatening Black Hat the way they had! I knew they hated me, but to go as far as to threaten my boss and my well-being after I made it clear I wanted them out of my life? Absolutely unacceptable. 

“I think I know who sent this letter.” 

“Oh? Well why didn’t you say so, then?” Black Hat sounded more irritated than anything, and to his credit I probably  _ should _ have realized the identity of the senders sooner.

“I’m not sure. I’m sorry,  _ jefe chulo _ .” I apologized, smoothing my lab coat against my thighs.

Black Hat scoffed. “Could’ve fooled me. I mean, shit,” He picked up my school photo and looked it over, an eyebrow raised. I could tell he was inspecting every detail with great scrutiny, from the curls of my rust-colored hair to the freckles and acne that dotted my cheeks and nose. There were some pretty drastic differences between how I looked then to how I look now, but anyone who’d seen me bagless would know that the photo was undoubtedly of me. “For a moment I thought this really was just a prank. The nerd in this photo isn’t at all how I remember you to look.” Black Hat placed the picture back on the desk and I got an uneasy feeling as I realized this was going where I thought it was. “Flug.”

“Yes sir?”

“Take off that bag. Now.”

“...yes sir.” 

He‘d seen me without the bag before, but that was only one time. Strangely, he never pressed further about how my face looked and I’d been allowed to wear my bag even in private with him ever since. Any anxieties I would have had about revealing my face were muted by the anger towards that letter pounding through my veins, and besides, out of everyone there was to show my face to I think Black Hat was closer to the top of the list of people I’d trust. Fives was definitely number one, and Demencia was way at the bottom; last thing I needed was her making fun of my disfigurements. I lifted the paper bag over my head effortlessly, resting it in my lap, and the expression on Black Hat’s face changed from skeptical to stunned. For a moment, dead silence filled the room like a blanket so thick I could reach out to touch it, and I could see my boss’ eyes scanning every last detail of my face before occasionally looking back down at the photo. His gaze, without a doubt, focused especially on my biggest shame: the disgustingly large burn scars on both sides of my face that went up to my eyebrows. A gentle breeze brushed my nose and it was only then that I realized that I was exposed, every one of my literal scars and imperfections on display for the most powerful being in the known universe to see. In a way, it was both liberating and terrifying, and the trembling in my body started up once again.

“Black Hat?” I didn’t realize I’d forgotten an honorific until after I’d spoken, but if anything I was just waiting for him to say something,  _ anything _ to me. The silence was becoming unbearable and the fact that my boss’ expression was totally unreadable didn’t make things any better.

“So this is you, then.” He said, voice barely above a whisper. Black Hat cleared his throat and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he looked a little flustered. One couldn’t blame him; I’d be disappointed too if my top scientist was as hideously disfigured as I was. Unconsciously, my hand snaked up to my cheek and traced the chemical burns trailing down them like waterfalls, the rough texture of the skin palpable even through my rubber gloves.

“Yeah,” I said, reflexively glancing sideways. My eyes definitely stood out to him as well. I didn’t need a mirror to know what they looked like; the same incident that gave me the burns damaged them severely, going so far as to change the iris’ colors from green-blue to a stark amber color. The irises themselves looked as though they’d been shredded and enlarged, and my pupils were always dilated as a result. It was why why I wore tinted goggles all the time over my bag; permanent photosensitivity was a  _ huge _ bitch. “Um, sorry if this is a lot to stomach.”

“Eh.” Black Hat shrugged. “I’ve seen much worse.” He put the letter back in the envelope, a malicious grin spreading across his face. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, gazing at me intently. “Anyhow. Tell me what you know about the senders of these letters, Doctor.”

“Of course.” I smiled, then added “Anything my boss wants.” A giddy excitement began to boil in my gut. The mere idea of Black Hat giving my shitty sisters what they deserved gave me a guilty rush of pleasure, one that I’m sure showed in my expression. I was reminded of the fact that my boss could indeed see my face when I noticed a sort of proud twinkle in his eye and realized I must have been smiling like a maniac or something. Why else would he have been staring in that way? “Well—“

A clanging noise in the ceiling above us cut me off. It was most likely a certain lizard-girl clambering through the air vents again, which pissed me off a good deal. This conversation was private and so help me, if she barged in and saw my face now I’d hope Black Hat would choke her out for real this time. His expression immediately turned livid and he glared upwards, pale green teeth bared.

“Demencia!” He snapped, and the clambering stopped. The air vent lid above the desk began to rattle. I instinctively reached for my bag, scrambling to pull it over my face before it swung open and that brat inevitably crawled out with some bullshit excuse for what she was doing up there. “I’m not playing games, get the fuck out of there before I have to make you!”

“Okay!” Came the muffled reply from above. Before either of us could say a word, the air vent swung open and Demencia free-fell from the ceiling, landing square in my lap in a very  _ sensitive  _ area. Naturally, I screamed in pain, attempting to shove her off of me. This only served to make the situation worse, as pushing her back pinned her against the desk, and since she was resisting so hard it was I who ended up going down along with the chair I was in. The chair landed on its back and my head slammed against the floor with a painful crack. My eyes shut and the world went white for a second before I felt my consciousness come back to me.

“Ouch! What the fuck, Demencia?!” I shouted, sitting back upright against the chair and rubbing the back of my head. Pain throbbed between my legs and behind my head, and it took a while for the world to dance back into focus.  _ Fuck _ , did that hurt. Between the expressions on my face and on Black Hat’s, Demencia would be long dead if looks could kill. 

“Nice of you to drop in.” There wasn’t even a drop of humor to my boss’ tone and he leered at the girl so hard his eyes practically peeled away her skin. “What gives you the right to—?!” Just then, Black Hat’s eyes caught mine and he stopped himself. “Um. Flug.”

“What?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. I noticed Demencia, now sitting on the end of the boss’ desk casually, was staring at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. I was going to inquire about what the hell she thought she was looking at when I felt the same breeze from before over my face. Time froze once again.

‘Oh. Oh no.’

All the color drained from my face in that instant. Slowly, I looked behind myself and my very worst fear was confirmed. Lying on the floor a few feet from the chair was my bag. 

 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hfhdhcnv uhh once again, if u liked this then drop a comment  
> so that like. I know people actually like this.  
> ty loves <3


	2. Whoops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flug flips shit. Demencia finally shuts up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, the feedback on this story has been incredible so far! I really didn't expect it to get the attention it did, so I guess I'll have to continue it now :0
> 
> Thank you lovelies for the kudos & comments! <3

 Let’s try this again.

My name is Silas Finbar Aberly, but as far as anyone is concerned, that name is long dead to me. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth from all the bad memories associated with it. My middle name is especially what bothers me. What kind of asshole would voluntarily give their kid the name ‘Finbar’ and then expect them to be fine with it?

These days I use the alias ‘Flug Slys’, and up until a few moments ago, nobody’s ever questioned that. Nobody ever questioned the bag I wore on my head, either, something I was extremely grateful for while it lasted. The bag was a crutch of sorts, something to hide my real identity from the world with and something to protect me from the people I knew would ruin my life in an instant given the chance. Somehow, despite the fact that my boss is something of an all-powerful eldritch being who could easily kill anything he wanted, I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that I was royally fucked if the wrong person knew who I was. Sitting in my boss’ office, a threatening letter on the table and my beloved paper bag on the floor, the feeling of ‘I’m screwed’ was now stronger than ever and the stares from Demencia and Black Hat were  _ not _ helping.

So here I was, my head and legs throbbing in pain from me being thrown against the floor, sweating bullets because  _ holy shit these two can actually see my face now and I am  _ so _ uncomfortable _ . Demencia, normally bouncing off the walls and unable to sit still, was now frozen in place, gawking at me like I was some kind of zoo attraction. Black Hat looked as though he’d rather be anywhere else but occasionally I thought I saw his eyes flicker back to meet mine for a second. For all too long we just sat there, not saying anything, until the annoying lizard girl finally decided to open her mouth.

“Flug, holy shit.”

‘Wow, Demencia,’ I thought sarcastically, ‘Way to encompass what all of us are thinking right now!’ Without saying a word, I turned and went to grab my bag off the floor from behind me but felt a certain someone pull me back.

“Hey,  _ no _ !” Demencia mocked the way I’d yelled at her earlier with a gleeful smirk, pulling me back into my chair. She then proceeded to snatch the bag off the floor and shred it to bits right before my eyes.

“Excuse me, what the fuck?!” I shouted, leaping up to try and pry her off what remained of it, but by then it was too late. “Demencia!!” I’d have to get a new bag from the lab when I finally got out of here. Demencia cupped the sides of my face, pulling me closer for inspection and raising my discomfort levels to exponential values. 

“Woah! Are these burn marks?!” The girl completely ignored my complaints, running her thumbs over the disgustingly large scars on my cheeks. I winced.

“Something like that,” Was all I could force out of my mouth. 

“How’d you get them? These are wicked!” She grinned, tilting my chin up. “And you’ve got freckles too! Aww, Flug-bug!” Demencia crooned, pulling me in for an uncomfortably tight hug. “Why on earth would you want to hide  _ this _ ?!” Over her shoulder, I could see Black Hat watching this unfold with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. If I’d had the courage, I would have scowled and flipped him the bird for it.

“Don’t worry about it, Dem.” I grunted, trying to push her off of me to no avail. Her grip was like iron on my fragile body.

“Fine, fine. Wait, holy shit!” She tipped my chin back up again and attempted to pry one of my eyelids open. “No way, are these  _ amber eyes _ ?! I’ve never seen those before! And your pupils are blown right now, dude!”

“They’re always like that!” Now my discomfort levels were well through the roof. Black Hat looked as though he was on the verge of bursting from laughter. “Now get the hell off of me already, this is weird enough as it is!” 

“But Flug, you’re so  _ coool _ !” She whined, now lacing her fingers through the mass of curls on my head. I wasn’t going to lie, it felt nice, but no way in hell would I give her the satisfaction of knowing that. “Ooh, I love your hair! It’s like…” She paused, trying to conjure up the right words. “It’s like the inside of a grapefruit!”

Black Hat snorted and I felt my fists ball up at my sides. By this point, I was ready to knock her teeth out, consequences be damned, and I hoped that however I ended up lashing out would be enough to get her to stop prying.

“Can you shut the hell up already?!” I snapped, a little more harshly than I should have, but in the moment my tone was the last thing I was worried about. Demencia stopped, finally letting me go, and looked for once in her life like she was genuinely upset.

“But Fluuuug...” She trailed off, then looked over to Black Hat. “Did you know about this?” She asked, gesturing at my face.

Black Hat chuckled, an smug grin on his face. “Maybe.”

“Then why didn’t you tell him to take that stupid thing off sooner?!” Dem whined and attempted to cling to our boss’ arm. He quickly moved himself out of reach and batted her away.

“Demencia, if you  _ ever  _ try to touch me like that again, I will shatter your jaw so hard they’ll be picking the pieces out of your brain.” Black Hat threatened, his expression shifting to display a most horrible leer. You could feel the temperature of the room drop several degrees and I cowered back against my chair. Demencia visibly backed off, having learned her lesson for now, and redirected her attention back to me.

“So why the bag, Flug?” She propped herself back up against the side of the desk, hip casually pressed to the side of it.

I winced, hating to be put on the spot like this and knowing that if I got into the real ‘why’ now I’d probably end up bawling by the end of it. Without my bag on, it would be impossible to hide any and every emotion I felt and that was not something I was ready to deal with the consequences of just then. 

“Why not?” I blurted. My hands were cold with sweat and beginning to tremble at my sides. “You see how I look. I-I’d stick out in a crowd like a sore thumb!”

“You stick out even more with a bag over your head.” Black Hat deadpanned. He looked bored out of his mind now, kicked back in his office chair with that letter  in his hands. He was re-reading it absentmindedly like it was a flyer pulled off the street, my school photo still pinned to it neatly with a paperclip.

“Oop. Black Hat’s got a point, as always.” Demencia giggled. The second half of that statement was emphasized in a lovey-dovey tone and I held back a gag. Words could not accurately describe how much I hated when she acted like that; it  _ clearly _ made Black Hat uncomfortable and that was never a fun time for anyone involved. The eldritch horror looked just as pleased with the affection as one would expect, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Yeah, but even then they wouldn’t see my face. That’s the point of covering it.” Subconsciously, I began to look about the room, begging whatever entities may or may not exists to give me a way out of this hellish situation soon. Demencia snickered.

“You’re much more expressive without that stupid thing on, you know!” She remarked and I was once again reminded that these two could see every move my face was making.

“Yes,” Black Hat piped up, a malicious grin spreading over his own face. “ _ Silas _ is quite the character when you take away his little crutch.”

I cringed again and you could see the absolute delight on my boss’ expression.

“Silas?” The lizard-girl cocked an eyebrow. Black Hat flashed her the paper, pointing out where my full name was written in print, and she skimmed it over. I swear her eyes went the size of dinner plates. “No way, his real name is  _ Silas _ ?!” She shrieked, bursting into a fit of giggles. I felt my face burn hot in embarrassment and this only served to increase Demencia’s laughter. “I knew Flug couldn’t be what you were _ really _ called! Holy hell,  _ Silas Finbar Aberly _ ? You’ve gotta be pulling my leg! With a nerd name like that, I think I’d die of embarrassment!”

That was it. Something inside of me finally snapped. I slapped Demencia across the face before pulling her in so close I could see the flecks of yellow-green in her eyes.

“For fuck’s sake! I’m sick and tired of your shit, Demencia!” I screamed, my face warm and red with anger. “I’m sensitive about my face, alright? There! There’s your reason for why I wear that ‘stupid’ bag! And you know what else?  _ Fuck you! _ Maybe if you weren’t such an annoying, clingy, intrusive piece of shit I’d be a little more willing to open up to you a little more!” I shoved her hard in the shoulders and she stumbled backwards into the wall. The look of total shock on her face was priceless. My eyes flickered over to Black Hat, and for a second I almost thought he looked shocked as well. His expression quickly changed to something a lot more neutral, however, and he looked me over as though he was analyzing something. I waited for him to reprimand me for my outburst but it never happened.

Demencia, meanwhile, looked like she was about to cry. “Silas--”

“It’s  _ Flug _ .” I snapped. “Don’t call me Silas,  _ ever _ , unless you want me to tear you limb for limb. If you even try to call me that again I’ll--”

“Flug, dude, I’m really sorry.” She whimpered, metaphorical tail between her legs. The spot on her cheek was already beginning to redden, a welt forming in the place of my hand.“I…” Demencia looked at me, then at Black Hat, then back to me. For a while, the three of us sat stewing in an awkward silence until I, through ragged and angry breaths, decided to end it. I put her back down and let my arms fall limp at my sides.

“Just get out of here, Dem.” Our eyes were locked and she knew I was dead serious. There was a look of regret, maybe even fear in the girls’ eyes as she hung her head and slunk out of the office without another word. Black Hat and I watched, him with a satisfied expression and myself still fuming with anger. The door slammed shut and I sat back down in front of my boss, eyes practically glued to my lap. I was beside myself in my fury and was definitely showing.

“My, my, doctor.” Black Hat whistled lowly. “About time someone slapped some sense into her. A real shame you didn’t tear into her for real, though.” He paused. “You know, I’ve never seen you get quite that angry with someone before.” I looked up at him, fists still shaking in anger, and saw in my boss’ eye a literal glimmer of pride. Light flecks of pale green, not dissimilar to the hue of his teeth, reflected across his iris as he stared intently back at me. “Tell me, do you feel like that often?”

I thought about it. “No, not particularly.” Most of the time, I was too stressed to get properly mad at anything more than petty work-related matters. This was the first time in a while I’d really let myself go off on someone.

“Really? What a shame. So much wasted potential.” It was the closest thing to a compliment I’d ever received from him and my heart skipped a beat. Black Hat leaned forward on the desk, tapping his fingertips together. “Tell you what, Flug. Forget re-doing that project.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

Black Hat nodded. “Anyone who has the gall to complain about this company will get what’s coming to them in due time, anyway.” He snapped his fingers and the shredded remains of paper that laid on the floor pieced themselves together to form a whole bag again. I gasped and plucked it up in an instant. “Which is why I will let you decide how you’re going to handle this little...situation your sisters have caused. Who knows, it might be entertaining to watch what happens and Satan knows it’s high time something interesting happened around her.” Casually, he handed me the letter and I took it.

My heart skipped a beat and I hoped to Satan he wasn’t just saying that to get me off his back. “Really?! Thank you, sir!” I could feel a rush coming over me already and I put my precious paper bag back over my head. Boy, did it feel good to have that thing on again. Black Hat rolled his eyes at me.

“Whatever. Get out of my office, Flug. I have some...things to think about and I don’t need  _ you _ distracting me.” He snapped, mood suddenly shifting back to his characteristic sourness. A part of Black Hat’s shoulder branched off from him, forming a long arm that practically shoved me out of the room. 

“Oh.” The arm unceremoniously dumped me in the hallway right outside Black Hat’s office door. “Uh, thank you again, s--”

The door was slammed in my face before I could finish my sentence. I looked down at the letter in my hands, my past self staring back at me from the corner of the paper. My eyes rested on the image, taking in the appearance of my then unscathed, youthful face. The photo stared back with a distant, almost uncomfortable expression, his eyes blank and his lips pursed flat. The sight of him made me feel uneasy, and I quickly folded the letter up, shoving it into the pocket of my lab coat.

The initial rush had worn off and now I was just tired and very, very angry. It wasn’t even a full half a day yet and already I was under more emotional stress than I normally piled on in a week. Stupid letter, stupid news article, stupid Lilith and Abigail and Dahlia and Jackie and...and...

Words could never accurately describe how furious so much as  _ thinking _ of the five of them made me.

 

As I walked back down the hallways to my lab, the gears of my brain turning and the outlines of a plan beginning to establish themselves, something strange occured to me that made me relax for a moment, put a smile on my face. For the rest of my conversation with Black Hat, I realized, he hadn’t called me Silas once.


End file.
